Garbage rates going up in Clinton
Clintonians can expect to pay a little more to have their garbage picked up.
The City’s contract with Waste Management includes an annual cost adjustment provision that is being invoked again this year, increasing the garbage rate by fifty-five cents to $27.30 per month for residential customers, and raising the commercial rate by sixty-five cents to $31.15. The adjustment is based on changes in the Consumer Price Index.
The garbage collection amount will show up on customers’ bills as $28.30 including a $1 beautification fee the City charges, the proceeds of which have been used in the past to add lights on the Clinton Parkway and for other projects to improve the City’s appearance.
“[A rate increase] is going to be a given every year as long as the price of fuel and the CPI goes up,” says Mayor Phil Fisher. “And that’s just the way it is.”
Unlike last year, when the City wasn’t notified about the cost adjustment request until February, it won’t have to add a “catch up” charge to the bills. By the time the necessary legal advertisements could be published in 2024, four months had passed, forcing the City to retroactively collect an additional amount to cover the higher rate that wasn’t charged earlier in the year.
“We were aware of it this time and ahead of it,” Fisher says.
Ward 4 Alderman Chip Wilbanks says he’d like to see more documentation from Waste Management regarding the higher expenses it’s claiming.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” Wilbanks says, “because this company has a very, very high profitability quotient. But it is what it is.”
I would love to see a complete break down of the beautification of Clinton. Who is bidding on jobs, who got the job, exact price for plants, how many workers they used, how many hours they actually worked.
Citizens of Clinton will probably not see this breakdown.
I am a widow and Senior Citizen. I cannot afford the increases everyone puts on me. I do not have increases in my small income.
Think about changing garbage pickup to one day a week for residents instead of two. Maybe do this for Seniors. Please do something instead of raising costs.